There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy Lyrics
Author: Frederick William Faber (1862)
1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
like the wideness of the sea.
There’s a kindness in God’s justice,
which is more than liberty.
2 There is welcome for the sinner,
and more graces for the good.
There is mercy with the Savior,
there is healing in his blood.
3 But we make God’s love too narrow
by false limits of our own,
and we magnify its strictness
with a zeal God will not own.
4 For the love of God is broader
than the measures of the mind,
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
5 If our love were but more simple,
we should rest upon God’s word,
and our lives would be illumined
by the presence of our Lord.
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy Story
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy is a hymn that was written by Frederick William Faber in 1862.
Faber was born in Yorkshire, England in 1814. He grew up at a time of some theological tensions within the Church of England that led to influential clergymen like John Henry Newman leaving Church of England and converting to Roman Catholicism.
Faber though raised as a Church of England member followed his mentor, John Henry Newman into the Catholic Church in 1845.
But the influences of music from the Church of England followed him into the Catholic church.
He wanted the Catholic church to borrow a leaf from the type of music created by people like William Cowper, John Newton, and others. He therefore went ahead and composed hymns himself to be sung in the Catholic church.
His best-known hymn that has crossed denominational boundaries is “Faith of Our Fathers.”
Below are more hymns’ lyrics and stories:
Yes He Knows the Way is Dreary
Appointed by Thee We Meet in Thy Name
Whosoever Heareth, Shout, Shout the Sound
When the Mists Have Rolled in Splendor
Tell It Out Among the Heathen That the Lord Is King Lyrics